Internet penetration is on the rise across the world with over 4 billion consistent internet users all over the world and more than a quarter of a billion new users accessing the internet in 2017 alone, according to the 2018 Global Digital report by HootSuite.

Based on this, there is no better time than now for businesses to begin to focus on new collaborative strategies to help deliver more efficient service for users. This was the focus of the keynote presentation made by Commercial Director, Vodacom Business Nigeria, Solomon Ogufere at the NigeriaCom 2018.

The event broadly themed, “Leading Economic Resurgence through ICT Innovation”, provided an excellent opportunity for various stakeholders within the Information Communication and Technology (ICT) space to deliberate on pertinent issues facing the sector today, paramount of which, was the issue of collaboration in order to achieve optimum quality of service for the end user.

While addressing the Mobile Network Operators, Internet Service Providers, Policy Makers, Techpreneurs and others present, Ogufere said: “With the increase in internet penetration around the world, the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) and new enabling technologies permeating every facet of business and life, there is an urgent need for swift development within the ICT industry and this can only be achieved through a paradigm shift.”

He said: “The shift must begin first from our approach towards collaboration, moving from opportunistic pseudo collaboration to symbiotic collaboration that leads to efficiency in service delivery, improved quality and a better all-round experience for the customer.”

As the rest of the world enters into the fourth industrial revolution, Africa as a Continent still lags behind in digitization efforts when compared to Europe, the United States and even Asia, showing that there is yet more ground to cover as it pertains to technological development and this cannot be achieved unilaterally.

Ogufere also noted: “The secret to solving the collaboration conundrum is to create a culture of collaboration which requires constant interaction. Industry leaders must move away from ownership mentality by creating avenues for collaboration at every point within the ecosystem and encouraging new entrants with specific expertise into the market.”

In conclusion, he said: “Collaboration is fundamental for sustained development across industries. As such, collaboration can be said to be the ultimate key ingredient for the development of the economy across all industries. Therefore, being the driving force of all development across the world, this collaboration must begin with technology.”